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ObjectiveSimply put the goal of this program is to get active NetBeans community members involved in testing of the NetBeans IDE 4.0 Beta and RC builds. Participants will provide feedback on product usability, quality, performance and overall release quality. In return, those volunteers are given the opportunity to sigificantly influence the quality of NetBeans IDE 4.0. |
Program members
People participating in the program should have previous experience with NetBeans IDE and are willing to contribute some time and effort. The details of their responsibilities are explained in FAQ section. A list of NetCAT 4.0 program participants is available here.Benefits
Members of the NetCAT program will enjoy many special privileges. They will have the opportunity to nominate bugs which they and their colleagues feel are critical to the success of NetBeans IDE. They can object against waiving other bugs as they are allowed to contribute to the Bug Waiver process. Members who submit bugs during this program will have their bugs marked with a magic prefix that guarantees special attention from developers and QA engineers. Additionally, they can request new features for future releases. And yes, there are some gifts from us, of course. The most important fact is that we want our community to accept the release. Your voice is important to us!What tools are in place ?
There are several accessory means prepared specially for this program. Here is the list:| Item | Description | Detail | Action |
| Mailing list | Archived e-mail alias dedicated exclusively for communication between program participants, information about progress, important milestones, bug waiving process and others. | netcat@netbeans.org | [View archive] [View Gmane archive] |
| Marked issues | All issues filed by program members will be highlighted by special prefix. | [40cat] | [Show the issues] |
| Simple bug forms | A special one-step submit issue form and reduced bug query form simplified for easy and quick usage. | [Report new issue] [Search an issue] |
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| Dashboard | Specific dashboard reflecting quality status of NetBeans 4.0 builds according to NetCAT program members. | [Take a look] | |
| CA survey | Special form prepared for Community Acceptance phase where participants will get a chance to express their opinion on RC build quality and if it's ready for release. | [Preview] | [View Results] |
Brief time schedule
This is a rough plan of important announcements, milestones and tasks scheduled for upcoming 4 months during NetCAT program.- August 2 - Official start of NetCAT program
- August 10 - Searching for suitable participants finished
- August 13 - Features/Areas/Platforms distributed in NetCAT team
- August 19 - 4.0 Beta-1 released, NetCAT team starts testing
- September 30 - 4.0 Beta-2 released based on Beta-1 feedback
- End of October - High Resistance mode
- Mid of November - RC build testing
- End of November - CA survey launched
- Mid of December - FCS release
Current status
The project was officially closed. If you want to know what NetCAT team thinks about RC build of NetBeans 4.0, take a look at results from Customer Acceptance survey. If you want to find out how the team values the NetCAT program itself, take a look at results from satisfaction survey.$Date: 2009/11/02 14:13:06 $ GMT
